


In Bloom

by youriberi



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: AU where feelings turn into flowers, Angst, Hoshido | Birthright Route, King!Leo, M/M, this is a bit of a mess tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-21 05:51:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14909570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youriberi/pseuds/youriberi
Summary: After the war, Nohr is left in devestation and with a new crown prince. Leo's magical affinity for plants had never really bled over to occasions aside from the battlefield ever since the war, but now, where ever he walks, little flowers grow beneath his feet. Niles plucks every single one.In which whenever Leo feels any emotion strongly, flowers grow around him that are symbolic of whatever he's feeling.





	In Bloom

**Author's Note:**

> This is honestly just a drabble that got a bit too long? Hopefully it's not too difficult to read. It'll just be a oneshot and I don't have intentions of writing a follow up, but we'll see.

“That will be all for today, Niles.”

“As you wish.”

Said man bowed respectfully before removing himself from Leo’s room, nighttime preparations finished for the evening. With a fleeting glance at Leo, who had all but turned his back towards him and was placing a slender hand on his windowsill (no doubt with another grievous expression that Niles found disturbingly out of place), he stepped out into the empty hallway, regret gnawing at his stomach. Taking care to gently close the door behind him, as to not disturb his lord, the slight chewing of his lip was the sole indication of Niles’ unease.

_As if closing a door gently would comfort him any._

Niles could practically feel the reluctance and stress oozing out of Leo today, billowing forth in sickening waves that seemed to blanket everyone around him. His foul mood was only fed by Princess Camila’s absence at dinner (though no one had the heart to blame her), and without Elise to lighten the mood per usual, Leo sat alone, fork in hand, and was left to stew at the table. It had without a doubt been noticed by all of the castle staff; rather, what was left of it. Anyone would have noticed, really. After all, it was difficult to conceal the grief that was so deeply tied with Corrin’s betrayal of Nohr and his siblings’ subsequent deaths at none other than said traitor’s hands, even for one as collected as Leo.

It was as if the deep, inexplicable depths of his sorrows had been permanently ingrained into his aura— a development that Niles found nothing less than unsettling. Saying that he was concerned for his lord’s mental health was too grave an understatement. 

He loitered outside the door for a moment, hearing only a sigh from behind the wood that seemed to bear the weight of the world. Gut twisting, he forced himself away from Leo’s room, not wanting to inappropriately eavesdrop on Leo’s moment of rest. They had grown sadly far and few in between after his coronation, and much too fleeting for the retainer’s tastes. He couldn’t recall the last time Leo sighed in contentment since the end of the war. 

Although there was no longer a need to soften his footsteps as he walked (there was no one in the castle to listen for him, save a few maids that would like nothing more than to avoid him), Niles stalked quietly through the corridors of Castle Krackenburg by habit— it was ingrained in his system by now, with his upbringing. How you walked through the slums could determine the difference between having a dinner and being thrown into jail, and the behavior had never really gone away. As he was approaching his own room, which was a mere seconds away from Leo’s now that the castle was no longer occupied by bubbly princess Elise or Xander, Niles’ gaze was drawn to a pop of color to the left of his vision, the bright yellow color blooming so starkly against the dark decor of the Nohrian castle.

_A daffodil._

The delicate blossom looked like it had pushed itself right out of the carpet, as if the carpet was, in some other twisted universe, as nourishing as a patch of fertile dirt. But this situation didn’t surprise Niles any longer; the sight of the flower below his nose was only patronizing. A friendly reminder of his helplessness, of the chasm of grief embedded so deep in Leo’s heart. Wordlessly, Niles plucked the daffodil out of the carpet, motion swift and somewhat savagely, before resuming journeying to his destination. The leaves were cool and hummed with the presence of magic, and Niles tried to force down the bile that was steadily building in his throat.

With his lips set into a grim line, he twisted open his door.

Vases upon vases of brightly colored flowers littered in Nile’s quarters, and although it didn’t befit one of such countenance as he, the flora seemed to keep encroaching upon his living space more and more as the days passed by. His room was less of a place for rest nowadays and more of a storage room that he dreaded stepping inside of. Each time he approached the carved wooden arch of the doorframe, he knew he would only find regret and helplessness beyond it. When he placed the delicate blooms into their respective homes— now at least once every two days— he tried not to think about where they all had come from.

His room was spring abloom, a rainbow of colors so different from the infertile lands of Nohr’s fields. A vase of white and yellow daffodils rested on his bedside table, collected in a similar fashion to the flower he held now in his left hand. There were at least two dozen blooms crammed onto the neck of the porcelain—which was by no standards narrow—but the verdant green leaves were still pressed flush against one another in a rather tight squeeze. They were from today, too. Niles closed the door securely behind him and managed to shuffle another daffodil among the others.

All the other vases scattered throughout his room (some on tables, others on the floor) were filled with flowers of different kinds, all exhibiting various degrees of freshness. A vase of white camellias drooped on his dresser, fragrant and still emitting an aura of regality when nearing its death, and another vase of lilies, edges tinged with purple, stood brightly beside the camellias. The lilies had been placed in fresh water only the day before.

 _Elise_ , Leo had choked, in a rare display of vulnerability. Most days Leo’s unsettlingly cold demeanor cracked only behind closed doors, in the company of no one but himself. His fingers dug into Niles’ arms, shoulders hunched as he pressed his forehead against his remaining retainer’s chest. The black, iron circlet crowning him seemed to physically weigh him down with the a burden far too heavy that had come far too soon. He clung onto him like the smallest brush of wind would have be enough to topple him over. It probably would have. _Elise must have been so, so scared. Gods, she was only sixteen, she must have been so frightened— Little Elise, I should have been there for her—_

Later that evening, when lilies sprung up beside Leo’s boots on their nightly walk back to his room, Niles made no comment.

Instead, he bade his lord goodnight, closed the door gently behind him as to not disturb, then, crouching down, plucked and placed the nearly two dozen blossoms Leo had left in his wake into a vase.

A week ago, it had been Camilla he cried for. Today (judging by the yellow-hued plants he found scattered wherever Leo went) it had been his missing retainer. Shortly after Odin’s sudden disappearance, daffodils began to decorate the castle with their cheerful, canary colored petals. Niles had not needed to inform Leo of this recent phenomenon. He already knew.

_Of course he knows. He knows better than I do._

Nile’s heart ached for Odin’s boisterous presence as well; something about his company warmed something in him that he had once thought to be long dead. As he stared for what seemed like hours at the admittedly beautiful flowers, his mind wandered, nose caressed by their gentle scent.

 _Magic, it’s… formed by one’s soul,_ Leo had explained to Niles, so long ago. _You can’t hide what’s inside your heart when you cast a spell. The color of your aura—your magic—is unique to every mage. However, as a consequence, sometimes things happen without you intending them to._ Leo had always hated unintended consequences.

Niles had chuckled when Leo fixed him with a brief but pointed look.

_For those connected intimately with magic, any sort of over stimulus can bring forth some reaction. Think of it as overflow._

Niles had found it quite amusing when small bean sprouts would form atop Leo’s head when he studied too hard. Or, more privately, when Niles left pink, possessive marks on the flushed skin of Leo’s thighs he swore he could smell peonies hanging in the air above them, like an aphrodisiac. It was a quirk he had come to adore, no matter what the setting may have been.

It wasn’t funny anymore.

Niles settled himself onto the white sheets of his bed, the only area in his room completely void of flowers. Even when he smothered the candle beside his bed, the room plunging into darkness, he found it difficult to sleep. The smell of death that clung to the sheets sickened him.

 _Daffodils_ , he mused, entertaining himself with evasive yet cutting thoughts. _I wonder if Odin’s aura was as warm as those flowers. Or as yellow._

I wonder what color Leo’s aura is. What it was.

His eyelids finally grew heavy with exhaustion when the sun rose, thoughts of happier times slipping through his fingers.  
.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

When Leo stepped out of his room the morning after, neck collar too tight, too choking, he was confronted by a sea of flowers before his feet, extending down the length of the hall and further beyond. His heart twisted at the sight of them.

_Bluebells. Daisies._

That evening, he busied himself with picking each and every bloom until the corridor was stripped bare, fingers stained with the smell of greenery. The glass vase sat by his bed, lip of the glass bursting forth with blue and white blooms.


End file.
